The Effectiveness of a Music-Movement Program on Manipulative Skills Performance of Six Years Old Children

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of a music-movement program on the performance of
manipulative skills in six-year-old children. Seventy-five children (34 girls and 41 boys: M=6.3 years, SD= 0.2 months) were the participants in this study. Forty of them participated in the music-movement program twice a week, while the rest participated in the same movement program without the music. The study lasted eight weeks with two teaching sessions per week. The Test of Gross Motor Development (Ulrich, 2000) was used for the assessment of manipulative skills (catching, throwing, dribbling, kicking, striking and underhand roll). Two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used for the data analysis. According to the results the experimental group (music-movement) exhibited larger improvement on catching, throwing, dribbling, kicking, striking and underhand roll than the control group. Conclusively, it seems that a musicmovement program might improve significantly the performance of manipulative skills.